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POLITICAL HISTORY and Oakham on his way to Nottingham. In September 1290 he was at Greetham, in February 1296 at Ketton, and in March 1301 at Oakham. On his return from Scotland in January 1299 he passed through Stretton, and he took the same road on his last journey north in July 1306.'"^ Edward II was at Market Overton on 23 August 1315, at Stretton 2—3 August i 3 i 6, and at Oakham 28-9 April 1323 ; ^"^ and Edward III at Oakham in May 1337 and November 1345 ;^°* while Richard II was there in August 1378, and for about a week at the end of October 1380."' On the death of Hugh de Audley in 1347 Edward III granted Oakham with the shrievalty of Rutland to William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, and next year his deputy was admitted as sheriff.^"* On the failure of Bohun's line the grant reverted to the Crown, and Richard II bestowed it in 1385 on his favourite Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford and afterwards Duke of Ireland, for whom William Flore acted as deputy sheriif.^"^ Another royal connexion established earlier in the reign was the grant of an annual charge of ^^loo on the manor of Oakham to the king's rapacious half-brother Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent,^"^ while Richard Stury, one of the ' king's knights,' had a grant of equal amount from the same source in lieu of the custody of Bamborough Castle.^"' Robert de Vere, like Piers Gaveston, did not long enjoy his high and dangerous honours, and after his flight to the Low Countries Richard gave Oakham and Rutland to his cousin Edward, with the title of Earl of Rutland, now used for the first time."" This was intended to provide him with a living until he should succeed his father as Duke of York. The reversion was granted to the king's uncle Thomas, Duke of Gloucester,"^ who had married one of the Bohun heiresses, and whose claim had been passed over in the grant to De Vere. Thus Rutland continued to be connected with the general political history of England rather through the property held in it by the magnates of the realm than through the great actions of any men belong- ing to the county or through the importance of local events. A distinguished man who acquired a connexion with the county about this time was Sir Robert de Plesyngton, originally of Lancashire, who was Chief Baron of the Exchequer early in Richard's reign, and was removed in 1380, probably as an adherent of Gloucester. In the Parliament of 1387 he was the spokesman of the Lords Appellant, and he died in 1393. Richard took posthumous revenge in 1397, on the fall of Gloucester, and confiscated the property which Plesyngton had left ; this was, however, restored on the accession of Henry IV, and the Plesyngtons for several generations took an active part in local government.^ 112 "" Gough, I tin. Edto. I. '" Hartshorne, I tin. Edw. II. "* Cal. Pat. 1334-8, p. 451 ; Cal. Close, 1343-6, p. 666. "" Cal. Pat. 1377-81, pp. 272, 551-7. "^ Cal. Close, 1346-9, pp. 342, 438. The total annual value is given as ^^293 17/. 6^d., and it was to be held as formerly ' by the service of one knight.' '"' Cal. Pat. 1385-9, pp. 7, 14, 69. De Vere already held Market Overton ; ibid. 1401-5, p. 69. "" Ibid. 1377-81, p. 450. HoILmd found that he could not get more than j^50 from Oakham, and he therefore received supplementary grants elsewhere ; ibid. 1 38 1— 5, p. 14. "'Ibid. 1381-5, p. 415. "° Cal. Pat. 1388-92, p. 354. The total annual value was j^299, of which j^97 went to Joan, Countess of Hereford, ;£loo to Richard Stury, and £j to others, leaving a net return to Edward of ^^95. There is no mention of the grant to th: Earl of Kent. '" Ibid. 255. '" Diet. Nat. Biog; P.R.O. List of Sheriffs ; Ret. of Memb. of Pari. I 177 23